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-40 f windchill in central NY

19K views 118 replies 49 participants last post by  sqkcrk 
#1 ·
Its going to be -40 windchill tonight this winter is worse than last year hope me girls are going to make it.
 
#5 ·
I was moving cinder boxes with that old fashion way today and worked up sweat. Son was helping and wearing short pants. Hard to believe ya'll getting hammered that hard this late and we are sitting in the 70s.

Hope all the ladies make it.
 
#8 ·
I kept bees in ND. We had temps down to -90F. A couple of times we stayed below -40F for a week or more.

SOLID bottoms
Wrapped hives (I used BeeCozy's from NOD Apiaries)
Top entrances (All-Season inner cover design from Tim Arheit at Honey Run) w/ 2" polystyrene foam insulation in the top

Didn't get every hive through the winter, but by the time we moved back south - I was averaging around 70-80% overwinter survival.

Interestingly - of the ones that died, most seemed to make it all the way to April or so. Then we would generally get one last brutal late April/May storm and that would be all they could take. One year, (2009 I think) we even got 8" of snow on June 6.
 
#10 ·
Not as cold here is it is there, but getting down to 15 tonight and it won't be getting above freezing here all week. Calling for 0 Wednesday night. This time last year, colonies were hatching brood and bringing in pollen left and right. Not this year. Makes me wonder what kind of summer we are in for.
Ian, you need to keep this mess up there with you where it belongs! Lol
 
#14 ·
It was 51 last Sunday so we added Fondant to everyone and confirmed that every cluster was in contact with the food. Calling for 0F tonight and snow tomorrow. Somehow I have a single deep 5 frm nuc with 2 frames of bees still living. I wrapped it in tar paper and stacked hay bales on the windy sides. If they make it through this week I will have a renewed faith in over-wintering nucs.
 
#18 ·
You know it's a tough winter when a Long Island beekeeper had to buy snowshoes to get to his hives on the
4 or 5 doable days we've had this winter. Probably should have had them last year too.
What the heck is with this wind?


time to reconsider the planting zone here, again.
 
#20 ·
I've already had windchills lower than -45 about a month ago, but tonight will push that as the air temperature is starting even lower. Here's a pic of my girls' winter wrappings. Picture was taken in January before it started to snow here. Now the snow on the ground is thigh-high and there's at least 18" on top of the hive. There are four hives inside this un-lovely blob.

Shack


Early this afternoon with the air temps in the single digits - and absolutely no wind at that time - the bees in the tallest hive were orienting - poor silly creatures. Many of them promptly plunged right down into the snow and required rescuing. I only got stung twice, though, as I picked up and rewarmed dozens and dozens of them in my bare hands. They did the same thing last winter (same queen) - I think they must have some Russian in them.

It looks as if we are facing at least another ten days of arctic weather - my colonies were all alive and kicking last Sunday. Hope they all make it through.

Enj
 
#21 ·
Man its cold. I know you all up state have it worse the us in the city. A few days ago all my hives were buzzing here's hoping everyone makes it through. Last winter was rough, but I remeber checking on them around now. There have been no chance of opening a hive since december this winter. Can anyone tell me why February is so fxxxxxxx cold and the days are longer then December? Shouldn't the coldest part of winter be around the equinox?
 
#38 ·
So this cold snap is "somewhat normal" in that the coldest part of the northern winter generally occurs several weeks after the Winter Solstice. This is known as seasonal lag. The land is still radiating heat to the atmosphere despite the lesser amount of energy coming in from the sun at the darkest time of the year.
Text Line Diagram Plot Slope


On the bright side, I have to look at the extremes as one of the culling criteria for the ever adapting bees we keep.:)
 
#25 ·
-14 here this morning. It was below zero all day yesterday. No real let up in the night time temps. Id say we are getting close to the cold temps we had last winter that killed such a big percentage of our bees. On a positive note, I feel MUCH better about the way my bees went in to this winter. I dont know how much it will help with these temps but Im sure it will help some. I see a couple days later in the week that will be above 20. Im still waiting for that midwinter thaw!
Ray
 
#32 ·
I know one county in MA that has approved that a lost colony equals one loss, and if you split a colony to replace it, it counts as two losses.
:scratch:How do you split a dead colony?

If you have one colony and you lose it you are over the 17.5% but I am sure this is only for commercials.
 
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